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Dr Barbara S. Neumann: clay scientist and industrial pioneer; creator of Laponite®

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2020

Kirill Shafran ,
Christopher Jeans ,
Simon J. Kemp Open the ORCID record for Simon J. Kemp [Opens in a new window]  and
Kevin Murphy Open the ORCID record for Kevin Murphy [Opens in a new window]
Kirill Shafran
Affiliation:
BYK Additives, Widnes, UK
Christopher Jeans
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
Simon J. Kemp
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Environmental Science Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, UK
Kevin Murphy*
Affiliation:
Mineralogical Society of Great Britain & Ireland,London, UK
*
*Email: kevin@minersoc.org
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Extract

In 2019, BYK Additives (Widnes, UK; www.byk.com) marked the 55th anniversary of the discovery by Dr Barbara Zsusanna (Susanna) Neumann of the extraordinary product known as Laponite®. The range of Laponite® products developed in the UK during the early 1960s is one of the first examples of truly nanodimensional materials manufactured on an industrial scale, at a time when the field of nanotechnology was only being hinted at (Feynman, 1959). These hectorite-like synthetic nanoclays with very unusual properties have been an enduring commercial success for the UK company that first patented and introduced them to the market, Laporte Industries, which is now a part of the BYK company. The Laponite® brand has proved tremendously popular with academic and industrial scientists worldwide, being cited in >3000 patents and >2500 published academic articles.

Type
Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 256 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland

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